Spotify confirms Premium subscribers won’t get ads

Spotify received criticism on social media after some users started hearing advertisements after songs, even though users pay a subscription fee to remove them.

Taking to X yesterday, the streaming giant tweeted, “There is a rumor circulating that Spotify is putting ads into premium music listening.” The Swedish music company added, “This rumour is false. Premium music listening is and will remain ad-free.”

According to Android Police, there was thought that Spotify might introduce some advertisements to the premium level trim when the HiFi/Music Pro tier is released to the general public.

There is a rumor circulating that Spotify is putting ads into premium music listening. This rumor is false. Premium music listening is and will remain ad-free.

— Spotify (@Spotify) April 8, 2025

Back in February, Spotify inked a new deal with Warner Music Group that also announced the introduction of paid tiers, including the Premium and a potential “Deluxe” tier. This supports the theory that ads could be coming to the premium tier, making the deluxe tier the “ad-free, higher quality audio” experience that has been rumoured for a while. However, this is all speculative, and the final structure of the tiers has yet to be announced.

Currently, Spotify has a free tier which runs advertisements in between songs if users don’t want to pay, but introduces more options and zero ads when upgraded to Spotify Premium, which currently sets users back roughly $CAD 12.69/month, which isn’t far off their competitor Youtube Premium, which is about a dollar more.

The music industry remains among the last holdouts of the ad-free paid experience. Streaming services like Netflix have already added paid tiers that include advertisements. Currently, Netflix’s lowest tier is the $CAD 7.99/month “Standard with Ads” tier.

Source: Spotify via Android Police